List of Methods/Techniques

Note: Below is a list of some methods that may be used to assess parts of game design and assessment. Each method includes a brief explanation why it may be relevant to design as well as a few associated sources from our literature review. Please feel free to add or the revise to the list.

Link to the Grand Assessment Framework for which method may be useful for which section of the framework. For example, Interviewing can be linked to Stakeholders and Expectations as '1.0', under recommended use with framework.

Charters

Recommended Use with the Framework: 1.0-Stakeholders and Expectations; 2.0-Requirements; 4.0-Planning; 8.0-Closing

Associated Literature:

Rueker, Stan and Radzikowska. "The Iterative Design of a Project Charter for Interdisciplinary Research". In DIS '08 Proceedings of the 7th ACM conference on Designing interactive systems. 288-294. New York, NY: ACM. 2008.

Developmental Evaluation

Developmental Evaluation makes use of a developmental evaluator to inquire into developments, track developments, facilitate interpretation of developments and their significance, and engages with multiple parties engaged in and affected by the product regarding making judgements about what is being developing, how long it is being developed, and the consequences and impacts of what has been developed, and what are the next stages of development.

Feature Testing

Controls users' exposure to specific features or concepts of a product that are then tested against one another. It aims to understand how users will react to the project, with all its features, by exposing them to each hypothetical design at a time.

Journaling

Ortlipp, Michelle. "Keeping and Using Reflective Journals in the Qualitative Research Process". In The Qualitative Report. 14.4 (2008):695-705.

Persona Scenarios

The use of archetypal users with specific goals and needs based on who would be using your your project. The ultimate goal of personas is to identify specific user goals and needs so they can be aligned with business needs and goals to create an agreed upon list of features and functions.

Rational planning model

The process of realizing a problem, establishing and evaluating planning criteria, creating alternatives, implementing alternatives, and monitoring progress of the alternatives. It is a multi-step model for making logically sound decisions that aims to follow the orderly path from problem identification through solution.

Success/Failure Counters

The use of counters to determine the success or failure of measurable factors.

Recommended Use with the Framework: 8.0-Closing

Associated Literature:

Talk Aloud

Gathering data by having users talk aloud as they perform a set of tasks. Users are asked to say whatever they are looking at, thinking, doing, and feeling as they go about their task, allowing observers to know the process of task completion from the user point of view.

GRAND Assessment Framework

The GRAND Assessment Framework is an iterative assessment framework designed by the University of Alberta GRAND group. The framework starts with the assumption that the group research project involves practical game design, and continues by attempting to ask the most significant over-arching questions. It follows eight categories (see GRAND Assessment Page for questions and more information):